Alena and the Multigate
by Azure Butterfly
Summary: A mysterious floating ring appears deep within Granite Cave, bringing with it an exceptionally strange woman claiming to be from another time. With the growing threat of Teams Aqua and Magma and the rumors about a third underground syndicate, Hoenn is unquestionably in trouble; but will even the Champion have the power needed to avert disaster?
1. Chapter 1

**Alena and the Multigate**

Chapter One

The dim glow of her Pokénav screen cast a cone of visibility through Granite Cave, illuminating the walls with an unnatural light. Every now and again a stray Zubat would fly out of the cave's depths and attack, but for the most part the rocky surroundings were eerily quiet.

"_How much longer do you think this path goes?"_ a voice called out, suddenly piercing the silence.

"I don't know," Alena answered.

The Grovyle next to her made a sound somewhere between a growl and a snort. Twig was looking quite the worse for wear – after the twenty-seventh Zubat, he had lost count of how many fights he been through in this Arceus-forsaken cave. The horrible flying leeches could take a Leaf Blade to the face will no ill effects and Quick Attack could only do so much when the Zubat in question was clinging to your neck. Twig was still standing, but just barely.

"_If we don't find that man in the next five minutes, we're leaving,"_ Twig growled. Though she could understand the meaning of his words, Alena could still make out the venomous, animalistic noises that ordinary humans would hear.

"_You_ can leave," she corrected, "but _I've_ got a letter to deliver. With our luck, this guy is some sort of Pokémon League bigwig and the letter contains ~_secrets~ _about important classified stuff. I don't want to be responsible for the end of the world just because some weirdo in a cave didn't get his post!"

"_You are _utterly_ ridiculous. Do you really think that the head of an important corporation would give classified information to a ten-year-old? If you're that concerned about what the letter says, why don't you open it?"_ Twig made a motion to grab the slip of paper out of Alena's hands, but she deftly moved out of the way and lashed out at the Grovyle's stomach. Twig instinctively countered the attack, striking his trainer's hand with the blunt edge of one of his Leaf Blades. Too late, he realized that it was the hand carrying the Pokénav.

Twig and Alena stood in stunned silence, clinging to each other in the pitch blackness of the cave. The Pokénav's glowing screen was still piercingly visible through the darkness, but it was a good forty feet away, with who-knows-what standing between it and the terrified duo.

"We need to get to it," Alena whispered, and started to make a move for the glowing device. But Twig grabbed her around the waist, keeping her from taking another step.

"_There could be an endless pit in between us and the thingy! We need to get out of here, forget the letter _and _the thingy. We're Zubat food unless we get out. Don't you have an Escape Rope?!"_ Twig tried to grab hold of Alena's backpack but only succeeded in grabbing her face.

"Quit it!" Alena screamed. "I'm not going to leave before I deliver the letter, and I'm _not_ going to leave my Pokénav here! It was a gift!" She elbowed her starter Pokémon in the underside and dashed over to the Pokénav; but within seconds her foot caught on a stalagmite and she crashed to the ground.

She tasted blood, but wasn't sure if it came from biting her tongue during the fall or something much, much worse. Her knees stung and were probably covered in dirt, but without a light she couldn't tell if they were bleeding as well. Behind her, Twig was screaming but she couldn't parse any words. In front of her, the Pokénav's light was tantalizingly close, but Alena couldn't work up the courage to crawl over to it.

_I'm going to die, _she thought. _I'm going to be eaten by Zubat and no one will ever find my skeleton._

It wasn't fair that she was going to die now, when she was ten years old, just starting on her Pokémon journey, killed by her own stupidity. Did this sort of thing happen often, or was she just exceptionally unlucky? Or worse yet, _stupid._

It wouldn't be much longer before she blacked out. She was already starting to see things. The Pokénav was moving of its own accord. She could feel the device in her hands, see the orange casing, feel herself being lifted off the ground by one of the cave's friendly rocks.

Alena began to question her own demise only when the 'rock' turned around to reveal a single red eye and began to make concerned chattering noises.

"_(Child?)" _it asked in a metallic voice. "_(Is the child okay?)"_

"Are you a Pokémon?" Alena asked, tentatively reaching for the creature's head (or what she assumed to be its head, given that it held the eye). The white creature apparently took that response for a yes and made a delighted series of beeps.

"_(Child! This one is happy because you are safe!)"_ So saying, the little creature pressed its head into Alena's outstretched hand and nuzzled her.

"_That is the weirdest Pokémon I've ever seen,"_ Twig said flatly. _"It's just an _eyeball." Alena jumped at the sudden sound of his voice.

"Twig, are you okay?"

"_I'm fine. Don't sweat it." _The Grovyle placed a comforting claw on his Trainer's shoulder. Alena gave a sigh of relief and placed her free hand around Twig's shoulder as well, and the three of them sat in silence for a few moments.

Then Alena realized what Twig had said earlier.

"Twig! You can't just call someone weird looking! That's mean!"

Thankfully, the tiny metal creature seemed to find the whole thing funny and gave a laugh that sounded like two steel plates rubbing against one another. _"(This one is a Beldum!)"_ it explained. _"(Humans do not see Beldum very much because Beldum do not live in the wild!")_

"You have a Trainer?" Alena's eyes lit up. "Is your trainer named Steven?" Beldum chirped happily at the sound of the name and pirouetted in midair like the spinning arm of a compass. It snuggled up to Alena's chest and looked at her expectantly. Not sure of what it wanted from her, Alena folded her arm across its metal body. It chirped again and then started to move, pulling the others with it.

The Beldum traversed the twisting paths of the cave as through it had lived there all its life. The walls and floors of the cave all looked the same to Alena and Twig, but the Beldum read them like a map, finally leading them to an expansive cavern. Unlike the rest of the cave, this part was well-lit by a series of portable electronic lanterns, revealing the intricate carvings and paintings on the walls.

A strange Pokémon with a green body and a ring of fleshy appendages surrounding its face was guarding the entrance to the chamber. It looked at the newcomers with suspicion (possibly – it was hard to read the expression when all you had to go on was a pair of glowing eyes on a blank face) but perked up when it saw Beldum.

"_You're back!" _it said happily. _"And you found a human and a Pokémon?"_

"_(These are new friends!")_ Beldum beeped. _"(They were lost in the cave, but this one found them.)"_

"_How did they get lost?" _the green Pokémon asked. Beldum gave a little wiggle that was presumably a shrug. The green one turned to Twig and addressed him in a stern voice: _"Did you prepare before entering? At least bring a flashlight?"_ It gave a pointed look at the Pokénav in Alena's hand.

"We didn't think the cave system would be so expansive!" Alena protested. "The captain told us we shouldn't have to look much further than the entrance! And we _did_ have a TM for Flash, but my Pokédex wouldn't even recognize it for some reason!"

The green Pokémon looked a bit taken aback to be answered by a human. _"You can understand me? …never the matter. You shouldn't have entered an unfamiliar cave without preparing first! You should have traveled with someone more experienced, like _my_ trainer."_ The Pokémon gave a smug look, which was wiped off its face when Beldum rammed into its side.

"_(Cradily! Don't be mean to the human! It is a child!)"_

"_Ow! Don't use Take Down on your own teammates!"_

"_(Don't be a meanie!)"_

"_You can't tell me what to do, you… spike-butt! OW!"_

Alena and Twig took a few steps back from the fighting Pokémon, wondering exactly what kind of mess they had landed themselves in now. Beldum had moved on from tackling Cradily and was now trying to claw at it with the butt-spikes in question; Cradily had bitten down on Beldum's head and was shouting muffled insults at it. They only stopped when a pair of steel-cuffed hands pulled them apart, firmly but gently.

"_He started it!"_ Cradily pouted. Beldum glared.

The silver-haired man sighed and massaged his temples, affixing the two Pokémon with a piercing gaze. They simmered down almost instantaneously, guiltily avoiding their trainer's eyes.

Alena coughed and the man's gaze shot in her direction. "Oh!" he gasped, startled. "I didn't hear you come in. Er… did Beldum find you?" Alena nodded slowly, suddenly very shy. There was something about the man, something about the way he looked at her, that simultaneously comforted her and made her feel a distinct sense of anticipation.

"_(This is a nice human,)"_ Beldum beeped. _"(I like this one!)"_ Its trainer gave a small laugh and patted the strange metal Pokémon's head. Alena wondered if she should translate for it, but the man seemed to understand its intentions even without knowing exactly what it had said.

"It seems as though Beldum has taken quite a shine to you!" The tiny Pokémon chirped in agreement. Its Trainer was absolutely beaming now, petting the little robot's head and having seemingly forgotten all about the previous chaos it had caused. Cradily gave a frustrated noise, prompting its Trainer to give it some affectionate pats as well.

"Are you Steven?" Alena blurted out. The man looked up from his Pokémon and upon seeing the letter in Alena's hand, jumped to his feet with a slightly concerned look.

"Were you looking for me? Is that from my father?" Steven took the letter from her hands with a bit more force than he probably intended to use. The fancy orange-and-black envelop was shredded open in seconds and the older man's eyes skimmed the page so quickly that Alena wasn't sure how he could possibly be reading. Finally he reached the end of the page and let out the breath he had been holding the entire time.

"Thank you," he said simply, folding the paper back into a neat rectangle and stowing it in his satchel. Alena considered asking about the contents of the letter, but the slight sense of unease she felt around the man prevented her from asking. Steven didn't say anything else for a while, instead silently looking out at the chamber walls with an inscrutable look on his face. When he spoke again it wasn't what Alena had been expecting.

"Do you know the Pokémon Groudon and Kyogre?"

Alena and Twig both stared at him blankly. Steven made a sweeping gesture towards the back wall of the chamber, where the largest of the murals dominated the entire wall. Three figures stood in triangular opposition to each other, the paint faded but still recognizable as red, blue, and green. To the right was a red monster with a squat body and a mouth full of jagged teeth. To the left, a blue creature with a round body and eye-like markings jumped out of the water. And at the pinnacle of the whole thing, a green serpentine Pokémon enveloped in a yellow glow shot towards the other two with clouds streaming behind its arms.

"The super-ancient Pokémon… the Pokémon that terrorized Hoenn in times long past. This mural depicts those Pokémon along with the protector of humankind – Rayquaza. But this depiction isn't of the same Groudon and Kyogre that we know, the ones classified in scientific records." He turned away from the mural with a furrowed brow. "These etchings suggest that the super-ancient Pokémon are capable of even more terrible destruction than we ever realized in the modern day."

Alena stared at him wide-eyed. Steven suddenly seemed to remember that he was talking to a ten-year-old and his face flushed pink.

"Sorry! I got carried away, didn't I?" Alena didn't respond, not wanting to upset him. The strange man picked up one of the lanterns at his feet and beckoned for Beldum to follow him. He wordlessly returned Cradily to its Poké Ball and gave Alena and Twig a sheepish smile. "I can take you back to the entrance, if you need." Alena nodded and he gingerly wrapped his right hand over Alena's and his left hand over Twig's claw.

The sound of their retreating footsteps echoed in the open hall, with only the murals remaining as an audience.

* * *

><p>"I never got your name," Steven realized as they exited the cave onto the sandy shore of Route 106. The sun was just beginning to set – when Alena had entered, it had been morning.<p>

"Alena. My name is Alena."

Steven smiled, looking her over more carefully now that they were out in the open with a proper light source. She was clearly a beginning trainer seeing as how her sandals still looked brand-new. Her face seemed perpetually worried due to the way her thick brows hung over her eyes and her mouth curved ever so slightly down in a frown. But her eyes were as sharp as glass and betrayed an incredible intelligence and stubbornness that Steven wasn't used to seeing outside of a mirror.

"Alena… I think that one day, if you keep training your Pokémon, you'll be an amazing trainer." The young girl suddenly found her eyes flooding with tears and had to turn away.

"Yeah… I'll do that." Alena wiped the tears out of her eyes and struggled to regain her composure. Turning to Twig she said, "Come on! We'll start training tomorrow morning and fight the Gym Leader in the noon!" Twig nodded with a sly smile on his face. The duo seemed to burn with a rekindled inner fire as they headed off to Dewford Town.

"Bye Beldum! Bye Steven!" Alena called over her shoulder.

"Until we meet again!" Steven shouted back.

Alena and Twig were out of site within seconds, having rounded a corner at speeds that would make a Jolteon jealous. Steven turned to Beldum bemusedly, but the Pokémon's single red eye showed no recognizable emotion.

"Have they always been that…"

Before he could finish the question, a tremendous roar split the air. It wasn't the sound of thunder and, judging by the lack of motion underfoot, probably wasn't an earthquake or rockslide. To complicate matters further, a high-pitched wail started up, seeming to emanate from every direction at once, but most strongly from the mouth of Granite Cave.

Beldum tilted its head curiously. It may have been born only two years prior, but this was something it had never encountered before. It turned to its trainer with an inquiring beep, only to find Steven on his knees, frantically digging through his gear. Beldum floated over and made concerned blips, but its trainer hardly seemed to notice its presence. It wasn't until Steven dug out an oversized pair of headphones and jammed them on his head that he acknowledged Beldum.

"I'm terribly sorry, Beldum." He winced as he pulled himself back to his feet. Beldum nuzzled its way into its trainer's hand as its way of accepting the apology. Steven chuckled and ran his fingers across the bumpy part of Beldum's head, prompting a digitized purr. "We should probably find whatever's causing this terrible racket."

Trainer and Pokémon made their way back through the cave, navigating the familiar twists and turns with ease. Seeing as how Steven had to muffle the wails out, Beldum was in charge of navigation. After what felt like an excruciatingly long time, the pair finally emerged in the great hall from before.

As soon as they crossed the threshold to the murals' chamber, the wailing cut off. The relief Beldum felt was short-lived, however, as a gargantuan ring filled with swirling purple void had decided to make the cavern its home with no prior warning. More concerning were the two figures slumped on the ground.

Steven and Beldum cautiously inched towards the two figures – now distinguishable as a young woman and a battle-scarred Pikachu. Without warning, Beldum shot off towards the woman and gave her a firm poke in the side. Steven tried to snatch the Pokémon back, worrying about every possible thing that could go wrong (what if the girl was made of _antimatter!)_ but Beldum simply ducked under his nervous arm and poked the girl again.

She groaned, sounding somewhat pained, and blearily pushed herself off the ground. Beldum made to give her another poke, but stopped when it was met with a piercingly stern gaze. Beldum nervously stared into the woman's blueish-grey eyes, too afraid to break eye contact, when it had a sudden epiphany.

"_(Child!)"_ it chirped, facial-recognition processes firing at full speed. _"(Alena-child! No, that statement is false. Not-child? Alena-human?")_

"You're pretty sharp for such a little guy." Alena swung herself into a standing position, gave Beldum a warm pat on the head, and grabbed the back of Steven's collar before anyone else had the chance to react. "Don't touch it."

Steven's outstretched hand, mere inches from the golden perimeter of the mystery portal, slowly dropped to his side.

"Who _are _you?" he asked. (Beldum chittered in annoyance.)

She didn't immediately respond, instead turning to the Pikachu beside her and scooping him into her arms. With a flourish she pulled a bottle of medicine out of one of her vest's many voluminous pockets and shook a star-shaped piece of candy into her open hand. As she placed the Max Revive into her Pokémon's mouth, she finally gave an answer.

"I am Alena Novol-Ceres. Champion of the Hoenn Pokémon League!"


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter Two

"You are _not,"_ Steven protested. "I've never even _seen _you before!"

Alena calmly reached inside her jacket and pulled out a disk of polished metal. The blue-and-red ribbon and trisected golden face were unmistakable, and the radiant pride Alena held it with gave proof to its legitimacy. Steven held out an expectant hand and after a moment's hesitation Alena handed her prize ribbon over.

The disk was heavier than you'd expect, and the silvery-white inlay was almost blinding as it reflected the light of the lanterns. Steven carefully retrieved his own medal from a pocket hidden inside his jacket, and confirmed that the two were identical. The only difference lay on the inscription circling the medal's reverse side.

"This date… it hasn't occurred yet."

Alena frowned. "Really? Because that's going to complicate things." She reached over to take the badge back, but Steven turned away with a dark look on his face.

The Pikachu in Alena's arms growled, groggily trying to escape her grasp. _"C'mon Alena, we don't have time for this! We need to find that Whatchamacallit before this Hoop closes!"_

"Yes, Electrinz, I know," Alena said. "But Steven… well, _this_ Steven, at least, deserves some sort of explanation." The silver-haired man gave a curt nod, and the Pikachu groaned.

"_This is gonna take _forever…"

"That… Hoop Thing… is some sort of multidimensional resonance gate. The places on either end always have something in common, but when you go through it there's a chance that you'll end up in a place where history played out differently." Alena paused to see if Steven was still following, and despite his confused expression he appeared to be listening intently. "So in this place, I haven't taken the Championship from you… at least, not yet."

With a worried look on her face, Alena reached into a side pocket and pulled out a yellow-orange device with an oval-shaped body. The sound it made as it booted up was unmistakable, as was the clamshell design.

"Is that a Pokénav?" Steven attempted to pull out his own Pokénav and remembered that both of his hands were full. Alena held out her hand and Steven passed the commemorative ribbon back to her and then retrieved the square Pokénav from his bag. Placing the two screens next to each other, the resemblance was clear – pinned to a corner of the screen was the map application, and the black status banner at the top gave a warning that there was no signal. Upon further inspection, Alena's Pokénav lacked any sort of downloadable apps, and sitting at the bottom of the screen was the as-of-yet-unreleased Match Call.

The two Champions sat side-by-side, illuminated by the glowing screens of the mismatched gadgets. Alena fiddled with the dial on the side of hers, trying to establish a connection.

"I don't think you'll have much luck with that," Steven ventured. "The scientists at Devon are still developing a way for the signal to travel underground." Alena gave the dial a few more stubborn turns before giving up.

"I'm trying to make it pick up the date," Alena explained. "You said that the date I was inducted into the Hall of Fame hadn't occurred yet, which would mean that I had time-traveled…"

"_Ten years,"_ Electrinz cut in. _"We beat the League ten years ago."_

Alena translated for him as she picked up her Pokénav and started to fiddle around with the settings, searching for anything that could give a date. Steven tentatively reached for the screen and Alena allowed him to scroll through the device's menus until he had somehow reached a list of all the downloaded software.

"2015?"

"Hmm?"

"The software version your Pokénav is running was released in 2015 – which is ten years in the future."

"_I told you so!"_ Electrinz chirped.

"Oh _fuck,"_ Alena spat, causing Steven to nearly drop the Pokénav. "Sorry!" Alena squeaked, upon remembering who she was with. Her face flushed red as Steven handed the orange device back to its proper owner. "Sorry," she repeated, almost a whisper.

"Don't worry about it," Steven said softly. After a moment's reflection he added, "The swearing, I mean. The issue of time-travel is a bit more pressing."

Alena glared over at the softly-humming hoop that still dominated half the cave. "It's not _just _time-travel, either. This version of Hoenn is completely different from my own. I mean, _you're_ mostly the same from what I've seen because you're still exploring caves in a suit with Beldum, but everything else…" Alena's eyes suddenly brightened. "Wait a minute, isn't this Granite Cave? Because that's where we first met!"

"Outside of Dewford Town? Yes." Recognition suddenly dawned on Steven's face. "You were that girl earlier today!" It seemed obvious now, seeing as they had the same name, the same auburn hair, and the same piercing grey eyes.

"Today?! Then the portal must have consciously sent me to a moment in time that was important to me…" The golden ring seemed to glimmer in response.

Steven eyed it warily. "Do you know anything else about these portals?"

"Nothing," said Alena. "Only that they appear in seemingly random places and disappear just as suddenly. I was with a friend when the first one appeared… it grabbed his Pokémon and we chased after it, but when I came to we had been separated. That was… two weeks ago, from my frame of time? I've been searching for these 'Hoops' ever since, and I've jumped about five times now. I nearly drowned on the third time because the Hoop was in the ocean. So I realized that I needed a way to manually calibrate the location on the other end of the Hoop so I don't fall into a volcano or something…"

Steven's eyes sparkled. "I believe I can help with that. But there is something I would ask in return…"

"A battle?!" Alena had pulled a Poké Ball off her belt the moment he finished speaking. A wide grin had spread across her face and the hand clutching the Premier Ball shook in anticipation. Steven nervously took a step back and gave a pointed look in the direction of the surrounding cave paintings.

"Let's go outside," he pleaded. Beldum (who had been silently watching the whole time) beeped excitedly in agreement. The small white Pokémon playfully jumped around the others and shot off towards the exit. Without hesitation, Alena grabbed Steven's arm and took off in pursuit, half-dragging her fellow trainer.

* * *

><p>"One Pokémon each! No switching Pokémon once you've sent them out! No items in the middle of battle and–" Alena paused. "Who's going to send out their Pokémon first?"<p>

The two Champions stared awkwardly at each other. It was common courtesy for the stronger trainer to go first, but Steven had the distinct impression that they were evenly matched.

"I can begin," he offered, hoping that Alena wouldn't take it as an insult. He grabbed the closest Poké Ball and was in mid-throw when Alena interrupted.

"You aren't going to use Skarmory again, are you?" She gave a nervous glance down to her side, where her Pikachu was making a face like he had just eaten a lemon. Steven interrupted the throw just before his finger hit the release button, but the remaining force of the swing sent him careening into a nearby sand dune.

Alena apologized profusely as he pulled himself out of the dune, while Beldum laughed hysterically from the sidelines. "Is something the matter?" he managed to say without snapping.

"Electrinz and Skarmory… they have a bit of a _history._ Well, maybe not _this_ Skarmory, but the Skarmory from our original timeline. And if you sent out Skarmory first it wouldn't be a far fight because Electrinz can take him out in a single attack, and…" She carried on for a bit before coming to her senses. Beside her, Electrinz gave Steven a look as if daring him to send Skarmory out. Finally, Alena snapped back to the present moment. "Electrinz is already out, so I can start with him if that's okay."

In way of agreement, Steven placed Skarmory's Ball back into its holster and grabbed the X-marked Poké Ball next to it. With a flash of light, his signature cobalt-blue Pokémon jumped onto the beach.

"Metagross!" Alena said happily. The crablike metal Pokémon scanned over her curiously and after a few seconds, made a happy ringing sound in greeting. "You're so cute!" Alena chirped delightedly, filled with nostalgia of the first time she had fought against it. Electrinz gave her an annoyed look.

"_Are we going to start or what?"_

Alena waited to see if Steven would give the first command. From the other side of the makeshift battleground, he and Metagross returned the inquisitive stare.

"Quick Attack!" Electrinz darted towards Metagross in a zigzagging pattern.

"Bullet Punch!" Metagross moved with surprising quickness, detaching one of its arms and launching it in Electrinz's path. Alena was too stunned to respond and Electrinz had to counter the attack on his own. He fired up Iron Tail and used the attack as a makeshift shield. Bullet Punch still sent him flying through the air, but Electrinz seemed mostly unfazed by the attack.

Metagross reattached the missing arm and started charging a new attack – from the pink and blue glow centered in front of the X, Alena correctly identified it as Zen Headbutt. "Electrinz! Quick Attack to close the distance!" Although he wasn't entirely sure what Alena was planning, Electrinz followed orders and shot towards the Steel-type. Metagross was still gathering its thoughts for the attack when Electrinz jumped onto its back.

"Now! Iron Tail!"

Electrinz slammed his hardened tail directly onto Metagross' body. The resulting clang sent the two Pokémon flying in opposite directions, Zen Headbutt fizzling out of existence as Metagross lost its concentration.

Electrinz's cheek pouches sparked as he gathered electricity from the surrounding air. Metagross stared him down as if daring him to attack. Alena and Electrinz moved in unison as they prepared to unleash Thunderbolt, but Metagross didn't even try to move.

"Metagross! Now!" Steven grabbed onto a strange, needlelike thing sticking out of his jacket collar. Metagross braced itself as a bright, spiraling light erupted from the rainbow-colored stone set into the pin, followed by a matching burst of light from Metagross itself. Alena was just now noticing the similar stone set into the nook atop Metagross' X, which acted as the epicenter of the pulses of light. Metagross was glowing like an evolving Pokémon, and what's more, a multifaceted cocoon made of crystal surrounded its body and dispersed the light in a rainbow of colors.

Alena and Electrinz stared in horror as Metagross exploded in a shower of glistening light. When the light faded, a completely different form of Metagross was looking back at them, one with a complete set of extra legs and a pointed silver X arching back over its body.

"Meteor Mash!" Steven commanded, seemingly oblivious to the fact that his Pokémon had just turned into a terrifying crime against nature.

Alena had to fight the urge to jump in and fight alongside Electrinz. She wasn't entirely sure what she had just witnessed, but she knew that it was Very Bad News. What if this universe had wizards? What if Steven was a geomancer? What if Steven was a _necromancer?_

"Thunderbolt, Electrinz!" she commanded. Her voice wavered, but Electrinz listened all the same. Metagross' glowing claw slammed into the ground right where Electrinz had just been standing. The follow-up attack hit Metagross head-on, but the robotic Pokémon hardly seemed to care. It stomped towards Electrinz, charging another Zen Headbutt even as waves of electricity surged around it.

"_Its stats have changed!"_ Electrinz shouted as he ducked under Metagross' floating body. _"Special attacks aren't scratching it!"_

"_Can you feel the electromagnetism keeping it afloat?"_ Alena called back in a crude imitation of Pokémon-speak.

Electrinz didn't respond and instead turned to face the approaching Metagross. Taking a deep breath, Electrinz pulled up a mental map of another Metagross, one he had known quite well. He could see the energy flowing through the quartet of arms and reconvening at the center, and if you simply added another set of arms and adjusted the flow to account for the size difference…

Metagross' glowing X slammed into Electrinz, _hard,_ but the Pikachu grabbed onto the Steel-type's leg at a place where the plating jutted out. Metagross seemed confused when Electrinz failed to appear after the attack, only for the sudden realization to hit as the Pikachu slammed his tail down on the Metagross' head. Before even the quad-processing brain could respond, Metagross' magnetic levitation systems shut down and the two Pokémon went crashing into the ground.

As the dust cleared, Electrinz stood up shakily from atop Metagross' motionless body. The iron Pokémon had reverted to its previous form and its red eyes were filled with metallic tears.

"Metagross!" Steven cried out, running over to his beloved Pokémon with a panicked look on his face. Metagross made annoyed sounds as its trainer fussed over it. Electrinz hopped off its back and staggered back to Alena, nursing a badly-injured tail.

"Here," Alena said, offering a Revive to Metagross. The giant Pokémon happily gobbled it up and slowly got on its feet, to the relief of everyone present.

Electrinz applied a Full Restore to his wounds on his own. Steven and Metagross shot him a confused look but didn't say anything.

"So, does that count as a win?"

"You are… unbearably strong," Steven said, choosing his words carefully. His eyes moved from Alena to Electrinz, trying to take everything in. "To lose against a Pokémon that wasn't fully evolved…"

Alena and Electrinz both chuckled. "He's carrying a Light Ball," Alena explained. "So it's not _really_ like fighting an unevolved Pokémon. Plus, he knows Steel-types pr– ow! What was that for?!" Alena glared at Electrinz, but he glared right back. "Right, right," Alena muttered. "Have it your way."

Before Steven could ask any questions, Alena shot out one of her own. "What happened to Metagross? Are you a wizard?!"

Steven looked a bit taken aback, but Metagross and Beldum found the idea hysterical. "That was Mega Evolution!" he protested over the mechanized laughter of his Pokémon. "Metagross is one of the few Pokémon with the capacity to Mega-Evolve!"

"Mega Evolution?" Alena asked incredulously. "You mean there's a secondary type of Evolution that acts as a form change?"

"Something along those lines, yes. Mega Evolution is trigged when a Pokémon holds the Mega Stone corresponding to its species and its trainer holds a Key Stone." Steven pointed to the pin stuck in his collar.

"It's evolution… with magic rocks." Alena hid her face in her hands, trying not to laugh. "You can transform your Pokémon with _rocks._ You are a _rock wizard."_

"If looking at it that way helps you to understand, then so be it," Steven said, defeated.

"_We won, right?"_ Electrinz interrupted. _"So tell Rock-Nerd that he has to help us!"_

"Electrinz! _Don't call him that!"_ Clearing her throat, she turned to Steven. "You said you could help us?"

He smiled and returned his Pokémon back to their Poké Balls. "Follow me."


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter Three

The trip to Rustboro City was mostly uneventful – the two Champions covered the distance in just under an hour thanks to the help of their Pokémon. No one said anything, and Alena started to worry about what Steven was thinking about her. Did he honestly believe her story, or was he just too polite to call her out? Was this the same man she had met all those years ago when she finally made her way through Granite Cave? The same man she had fought for her title? Or was this version of Hoenn she found herself in a completely different place from her home dimension, the seeming familiarity just a façade?

By the time they landed outside of the Rusturf Tunnel, Alena's anxiety had become a physical pain, a gnawing feeling inside her chest. She started to pull Sander's Poké Ball off her belt, but the Flygon grabbed her arm halfway.

"_I don't think you should recall me just yet,"_ Sander said in a low tone of voice. _"It's not that I don't trust Steven – quite the opposite – but something's wrong."_ Behind the red lenses, Sander's eyes were narrowed to suspicious slits. _"The Winds are blowing towards strife."_

"Are you being literal, or is this a metaphor?" Alena could never quite tell.

"_Metaphor, mostly." _Sander sniffed the air and gave a low growl. _"But I feel… nostalgic? Not in a good way, though. We should hurry to Devon."_

A few feet away, Skarmory touched down with pinpoint accuracy. Steven hopped off the metal bird with surprising agility and recalled his Pokémon before Alena had time to fully register their presence.

"Something is wrong," he said.

"So I've heard," Alena retorted bluntly. He shot a piercing look in her direction but Alena didn't seem to notice.

"We need to hurry!" the two shouted in unison. Alena and Steven stared at each other, confused, but Sander grabbed her trainer by the back of her capelet and dragged her along. Steven was taken aback to see a trainer (especially a powerful one) manhandled by their Pokémon in such a way, but before he could consider it any farther Sander hooked a claw around his metal belt and started to drag him too.

* * *

><p>Simon Sanchez had just returned from his lunch break when the trouble began. He was halfheartedly sorting through Devon's shipping manifests (grimacing whenever he saw a delivery sent to the Slateport Shipyard), occasionally stopping to glance up at his monitor where 'INTERNET'S BEST CUTE FUNNY SHROOMISH VIDS 10HRS' was playing in the background. He was the only one in his department right now – all the others were still on break, but Simon felt obligated to put in as much time as possible after last week's disaster in Petalburg Woods. So when someone passed by, Simon quickly tabbed over to inter-office email and tried to look busy, only realizing that something was wrong when a huge stream of red-hooded figures flooded into the room.<p>

The Magma Grunts stared at Simon, and he stared back. He could feel the blood rushing out of his face and silently bemoaned the fact that he had never caught a Shroomish of his own. This was the end, he thought. They had come back for revenge.

The Grunts shuffled their way to the other end of the office and headed into the Research and Development wing. One of the Grunts continued to stare at Simon for a while longer, one who Simon recognized with a jolt. It was _him. _He had returned for round two. Simon tried to come up with a witty one-liner, a sarcastic remark, _anything_ that would give him a sense of finality as he was mugged again, this time in his own office.

He and the Grunt were still holding their impromptu staring contest when the door to the office was blasted off its hinges. The glowing stones of an Ancient Power attack tore through the room, sending Simon's computer flying into a wall and causing Simon himself to fall sideways off his chair. Simon pulled himself up just in time to see the President's son plow right past the stunned Magma Grunt and leap clean over a pile of ruined chairs four feet high. Simon grabbed the Grunt and pulled him aside just in time for a Claydol, Flygon, and human woman to storm through the room, trampling the spot where the Grunt would have been.

The two stared blankly in the direction of the trainers' egress. After a few minutes of silence, Simon pulled himself to his feet and weakly staggered towards the window.

"I think I'll be going home early tonight," he groaned.

"Do you… mind if I accompany you out?"

The two men slung their arms around each other's shoulders and slowly, painfully, made their way to the exit.

* * *

><p>In the enormous, industrial hall of the Research and Development wing, Alena and Steven struggled to hold off the Grunts and keep them from going any farther into the building.<p>

"Where did you all come from?!" Alena shrieked, punctuating each word with a hand signal to her Pokémon. Sander and Claydol took turns sending Earthquakes through the building's floor while Electrinz sniped Zubat with Thunderbolt. Steven and Alena were ordering their Pokémon from a vantage point up in the rafters, securely fastened to the steel beams but looking thoroughly absurd. Below them, hordes of uniformed Grunts struggled to get past the relentless waves of attacks. It wasn't just Team Magma – mixed in with the horned red hoods were the blue bandanas of Team Aqua and the black-and-yellow vests that Alena knew all too well.

"Fucking Thunder's here too?" Alena spat. "I'm going to go through all of this _again?"_ Steven shot her a questioning look out of the corner of his eye but quickly returned to the battle at hand when Claydol was nearly struck with a point-blank Hydro Pump.

Just when it looked like the army of Grunts was finally starting to thin out, a shrill, pealing alarm shot through the speaker system. Both Alena and Steven fell to their knees in surprise, giving the Grunts ample time to disperse throughout the building and away from the wrath of the two Champions. Claydol and Sander broke away from the fighting to make sure their trainers were okay, and Electrinz sent a few more Thunderbolts at the retreating Grunts in a futile attempt to slow them down.

"You don't have to worry about me," Steven told Claydol in what he meant to be a reassuring voice. The Pokémon wasn't fooled, however, and carefully helped its trainer to his feet. Beside them, Alena had already detached the carabiners holding her in place and was getting ready for Sander to carry her back down.

"Which way are we going?" Alena shouted over to the silver-haired man, over the sound of the alarms. Rather than straining over the alarm system, Steven pointed upwards, straight towards the ceiling. "We're going to break through?" Alena asked, mildly concerned but fully prepared to do it anyway.

"No!" Steven cried in exasperation. "Go _outside_! We have to beat them to the top floor!"

"Roger that!" Alena hopped on Sander's back and the two glided down to one of the industrial-sized windows that had been smashed open during the fighting. Electrinz jumped into Alena's lap and the three of them shot through the opening. Sander spiraled upwards to the Executive Office, preparing Dragon Claw. Alena shielded Electrinz with her body and covered her face with her right arm as the trio smashed through the building's concrete roof.

"President Stone!" Alena called out. A series of coordinated Hydro Pumps blasted over her head served as a reminder to the fact that the man in question didn't technically know her yet. The older man stared her down with an icy look that Alena recognized all too well from her time spent with Steven, and a quintet of Omanyte moved into position to fire again.

"Dad! Stop attacking!"

Devon's president and his Pokémon snapped their attention from Alena to the soaking-wet man behind her. Alena gave Steven a sheepish look and signaled for Sander to move aside so he and Skarmory could land.

"Steven?" his father asked, incredulous.

"I'll explain later," he said, trying desperately to keep up his mask of steel-like collectedness. It was a bit more difficult than usual, seeing as how his clothes had soaked up at least a gallon of water and the small issue of him having caused thousands of dollars in property damage to company property.

"Those weird guys – Team Aqua, Team Magma, and Team Thunder – are attacking!" Alena tried to explain. "There's a whole bunch of them and they've stormed the offices. We don't know what they're here for, we just showed up halfway through the attack."

President Stone looked back and forth between his son and Alena. "Team Thunder?" he asked. Then, "Are you a friend of Steven's?" And then, finally, with the hints of a smile on his face, "Are you two… seeing each other?"

"No!" Alena choked out. She could feel her face turn beet-red. Across the room, Steven tried to hide his own blushing as he released his entire team in front of the door.

"There's no time for jokes, Dad! We need to get you out of here!"

The older Stone waved his hand nonchalantly. "I've been observing their movements. They haven't moved past the third floor yet. From the looks of things, they're all fighting each other too much to accomplish anything." He took a sip from his coffee mug and tapped the tablet on his desk. "Hmm. Though it looks like there's a security breach in the experimental vault."

"The vault?!" Steven raced out the door with Metagross and Beldum in pursuit. The rest of his Pokémon looked unsure of what to do and eventually seemed to settle on 'guard Steven's father.' Alena and her Pokémon took off in hot pursuit, leaving President Stone alone with a small army of Pokémon protecting him.

"Some things never change, I guess," he said with a smile. "Be safe, you two."

* * *

><p>Alena finally caught up to Steven in front of an enormous circular door, secured with at least eight different kinds of locks. As he tapped away at a keyboard, entering a password that was seemingly a hundred characters long, Alena stared at the door and tried to think of a way to make herself useful.<p>

"What do you know about this… 'Team Thunder?'" Steven asked unexpectedly. Alena wasn't entirely sure if she was just imagining the suspicious undercurrent in his tone.

"They're a group like Magma or Aqua, but they almost never act out in the public eye like this. Or at least, they never did back in _my _version of Hoenn." Steven nodded and motioned for her to continue. "They have a lot of sophisticated tech, more advanced than anything Devon or Silph have ever released to the public – no offense meant. They started off as a group researching alternative energy."

Steven bristled. "What kinds of energy, exactly?"

"Bioenergy. The potential of Pokémon. They discovered a way to capture the energy produced by Pokémon when exposed to emotional stimuli."

Steven slammed his palm against a scanner. "They know how to generate Infinity Energy?" He seemed to grow even more agitated and tried to type one of the passcodes with his single free hand.

"I have absolutely no idea what that is, but – maybe? And, um…" Alena glanced down at the elbow-length gloves covering her arms. She looked as though she intended to say something, but couldn't bring herself to say it.

"_(You are one of their members?)"_ Metagross asked.

"No!" Alena shot back, a little too quickly. Behind her, Sander and Electrinz made similarly disgusted faces. "I'm not part of their group. Especially not in this time and place."

Steven paused in mid-keystroke. "Were you a part of this group in your previous time?" he asked in a low tone of voice.

"_How dare you!"_ Electrinz growled, his cheeks emitting angry blue sparks. Alena held up a hand for him to stop and Sander wrapped her tail around his body. Alena didn't blame him for reacting so strongly; the first time someone had accused him of being part of Team Thunder had nearly ended with his death.

Alena stared at her feet, looking anywhere but at Steven or his Pokémon. "The leader of Team Thunder – Amilie Novol – is my aunt."

She paused before continuing. "In my original timeline, I stopped them from destroying the world as we know it. Aunt Ami realized that her forceful plan for changing the world wouldn't be able to stop the evil she saw within it. But in this time, she's still full of anger at the state of the world." Alena forced herself to look up at her mentor. Steven was staring at her with a distant look, but his gaze softened when he saw her face.

"So that's how you know so much about them?" he asked. It was a rhetorical question – they both knew the answer was yes.

"If Devon has the same energy technology – 'Infinity Energy' or 'biological potential' – whatever you want to call it, it needs to be kept far away from Team Thunder. If they can increase their energy yield, they might be able to succeed in this universe."

Alena grabbed the glove covering her right arm and pulled it off.

Starting just behind the wrist and extending almost to the elbow, Alena's arm was covered in smooth white plastic, looking almost like porcelain. As Steven watched in shock, Alena tapped a nondescript section of the polymer surface, sending glowing turquoise markings radiating out from the point of contact. When the veins faintly visible on the inside of her elbow started to produce the same blue glow, Steven realized that the plastic vambrace was not, in fact, mere body armor, and was actually integrated into her body.

Metagross chuckled. _"(We thought we felt mechanics there,)" _it said.

"You… you have… is that the technology of Team Thunder?" Steven gasped.

"Yeah," Alena replied in a failed attempt to sound casual. "Assuming the tech they use in this universe is the same as the type they used back in my universe, I should be able to override it… I think. Is the door almost open?"

"There's one more lock." Steven turned back to the keyboard and frantically entered the last few codes. The Pokémon in the room got into position, ready to attack anything that might lie in the room beyond. Alena gulped and hit the underside of her vambrace, trying to remember the procedure for tech-resonance.

The door hissed as the final lock was disengaged. The vault door slowly rolled to the side, giving off a loud screeching noise as it traveled along its track. Alena silently cursed the sound, knowing that whatever was in there was now on high alert.

Metagross and Sander entered the vault first, protectively bracing themselves in front of their trainers. Alena and Steven followed after their Pokémon, with Electrinz and Beldum bringing up the rear.

"Stay close," Alena whispered. "It could be one of their elites, in which case-"

Before she could finish, a large wire section of shelving came crashing down behind them, blocking the door. Alena's vambrace gave a loud ping and high-pitched laughter filled the room.

"how considerate of you…" The voice was like metal scraping against metal, with just a hint of something human. "i thought i would have to find you, but you found me."

Something slammed into Sander, throwing her into a shelf full of what looked to be prototype batteries. Metagross launched Bullet Punch towards the figure, but it jittered out of the way unnaturally like a marionette. Before Metagross could retrieve the launched arm, the figure sent an enormous ball of electricity slamming into the Steel-type. Metagross weakly pulled itself back to its feet, but the residual energy from the Zap Cannon soon forced it back onto its stomach.

"Hyper Beam!" Steven commanded. Metagross gathered its energy at the center of its X and Sander prepared a beam of her own within her claws. The twin blasts of energy utterly vaporized half of the room, but when the smoke cleared the mysterious figure simply jumped down from rafters where they had been hiding.

"no good," it taunted, and walked into the light.

The figure was humanoid, standing on two legs and possessing two arms. Beyond that, however, it was composed seemingly entirely of interlocking gears, pistons, and plate metal. Upon further inspection, more human-looking parts could be discerned: pale flesh exposed near the armpits and knees, human fingers jutting out of spindly arms. Around the figure's waist was a spiked hoop, slowly rotating at a consistent speed. The figure had a roughly human-shaped skull, but in place of a face a gear with three eyelike markings rotated counter-clockwise.

Alena looked over to Steven, hoping the Steel-type specialist could help her determine what sort of Pokémon the figure's body was based around, but found that he had turned ghost-white and had to cling to one of the shelving units just to stay upright.

"_It's a Klinklang!" _Electrinz called out. _"A Steel-type, but it uses a lot of Electric-type attacks!"_

Alena nodded and started to call out for Sander to use Earthquake. Before the words could leave her mouth, the Klinklang hybrid shot forward and slapped Alena to the ground, aiming specifically for the electronic vambrace.

"a thief?" it spat.

"Fuck off, Pokémorph!" Alena growled. "I am Alena Novol-Ceres, and if you try to claim that my name has no significance to you I'll fight you myself!"

Although it lacked a mouth, the Pokémorph seemed to smile. "i see, miss novol. my apologies. i am designated 'aden.'" Aden lunged forward, grabbing Alena by the throat. "your systems will protect you, no?"

The Pokémorph slammed Alena against the ground. Her head hit one of the shelves with a sickening crack, but within seconds, the same blue glow from her vambrace spread throughout her body, making her glow from within.

"_Alena!" _Sander and Electrinz screamed, both rushing for their trainer. Their bodies stiffened as Aden calmly walked past, but neither party attacked. Across the room, Steven and Metagross clung to each other protectively.

"i mean you no harm," Aden said as if they hadn't just thrown a young woman with enough force to kill her. "i have come in the interests of my creator, to collect a small number of items, nothing more." They turned on their heel robotically and stared at Steven with their slowly rotating face. "you are the heir to devon, yes? would you kindly relinquish your jacket and id?"

Steven didn't move. He seemed to be in shock, the Pokémorph's words hardly registering.

"hmm," said Aden. With one lightning-fast lunge, they leapt behind the duo and grabbed Beldum, who had been quietly trying to make itself unnoticeable. It squealed in terror as the clockwork hybrid held it against their chest with one arm. On the other arm, a vambrace nearly identical to Alena's flared to life with a dull roar. Aden curled the armored hand into a fist and held it against Beldum's head like a makeshift gun.

"please, heir. you would not want any harm to befall this child, would you?"

Steven tightened his grip on Metagross' leg and muffled a sob. "You wouldn't… not _Beldum_…"

The morph's face remained unreadable.

Defeated, Steven pulled his arms out of the weighted sleeves and offered his jacket to Aden with shaking hands. The 'morph gave him an expectant look and he quickly pulled out his wallet and placed it on top. Aden seemed to smile and let go of Beldum as they grabbed the pile out of Steven's arms.

"very good, heir. of course, my intent was never to harm this child. to harm an innocent Pokémon would be contrary to our goals." Aden swung their armored hand around to face Steven, their fist aimed squarely at his chest. "i will gladly offer you the opportunity to understand where your predecessors failed. you are most welcome."

The following pulse of light sent Steven flying into Metagross, but he hardly even felt the impact. His entire body stiffened and a strange feeling – like blood rushing into him from the surroundings – filled him. Though the flash had been blinding at first, his vision seemed to pop back in without warning (though everything was strangely flat). He tried to pick himself up and chase after the retreating Pokémorph but couldn't seem to find his limbs. He couldn't feel his arms or legs, just the sensation of his face pressed against the ground and Metagross' foot.

A terrible feeling of exhaustion hit him as the energized sensation from before faded away. He struggled to keep his eye open, but with each passing moment the urge to sleep became stronger.

"_(Steven! No!)" _

That was strange. It sounded like Metagross, but there were words.

"_(Metagross…)"_ he slurred sleepily. _"(…good night…)"_


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter Four

"I still don't understand how this could have happened…"

"It's… complicated. In layman's terms, there's a way to displace local reality and…"

Steven groaned, tried to roll over onto his other side, and quickly realized that something was very, very wrong. Even in his foggy, half-awake state, he could tell that his bodily map was completely distorted. He had a pounding headache but no sense of where his 'head' was in comparison to the rest of him. None of his limbs seemed to respond to his desperate attempts to move.

He snapped into consciousness, keenly aware of the sudden silence. From his vantage point on the floor (in his father's office, he realized a moment later) he could see at least a half-dozen pairs of eyes staring at back at him with apprehension. Metagross was there, as was his father, Beldum, a Pikachu, a Flygon, and a woman he was having trouble placing. _Alena,_ he reminded himself, struggling to recall the prior events of the day. They had gone to Rustboro to see his father and…_ something. _There were lots of humans and a strange woman had attacked him.

It took a few moments for the strangeness of that thought to sink in. The people who attacked had been members of Team Aqua and Team Magma, right? So why was he thinking of them as 'humans?'

His father slowly put down the paperweight he had been nervously fidgeting with and crouched down to eye level. "Steven…" he began, "do you remember me?"

"_(Of course!)"_ The words both sounded and felt strange. The older man's eyes widened and Steven finally realized that his dad… _towered_ over him. His heart raced and – no, that wasn't right either. His heartbeat was conspicuously absent. _"(What happened to me?)"_ he asked quietly.

"He's still himself!" Alena shouted, causing Steven to flinch. "Well, somewhat…" she added with an apologetic look.

"_(Metagross?)"_ Steven asked, craning his neck in an attempt to bring his favorite Pokémon into view.

"_(We're right here,)"_ the Pokémon seemed to say.

"_(Would you please pick me up?)"_ he asked. Metagross complied immediately, gently hoisting its trainer into the air with telekinetic force and spinning him around so they were face-to-face. _"(Thank you, Metagross.)"_

"_(You are very welcome,)"_ it replied.

Its mouth had moved, and those were unquestionably words. _"(Metagross! You can talk?)"_ Metagross opened its mouth to respond, but couldn't seem to find the right words.

Beldum gave a metallic giggle and floated over to Steven with a mischievous look in its ruby eye. _"(Boo!)"_ it said playfully, giving its trainer a small shove.

"_(Hey!)"_ Steven called after the Pokémon, who had shot over to the other side of the room. _"(What was that for?)"_ The shiny Pokémon laughed at him and shook its head tauntingly. Before he knew what was happening, Steven had flown over to the little Pokémon and grappled onto its side. Beldum giggled even harder.

"_(Now isn't the time, Beldum! You need to behave yourself!)"_

Beldum stopped laughing and gave its trainer a thoughtful look. _"(This one is bigger,)"_ it said after a moment's hesitation.

"_(Bigger? What do you mean by that?)"_

Beldum gestured to one of the windows with its claws. _"(Master Steven is a very small Beldum.)"_

It took a few moments for its words to sink in. _"(I…what?!)_ He spun around to face the window Beldum had pointed too.

Two Pokémon floated within the reflected image – a silver-coated one with a bright red eye, and a slightly smaller one with blue skin and a single grey eye.

The grey-eyed Beldum slowly floated down to the ground, his body rigid. _This isn't happening. There is nothing in this world capable of doing such a thing. There are legends, yes, but nothing scientifically viable. Human beings lack the capability to evolve and I… am… a human being…_

His reflection continued to disagree with him.

Steven shut his eye, partially so he couldn't see his reflection and partially to hold back the tears gathering in the corner of his vision. He still held onto the hope that maybe he was having an incredibly vivid dream or maybe a Psychic-type had hypnotized him. But the sensation of his claws digging into the carpet and a warm hand stroking his head were all too real.

"Everything is going to be okay," his father reassured him. "I'm here for you." Steven blinked away the silvery tears and hovered into his dad's arms.

"It _is_ reversible," Alena said quietly. "Team Thunder's headquarters have… records of everything."

The two Stones gave her expectant looks. "Um… that is…" Alena looked down at the plastic vambrace still visible on her arm. Though the glow had faded, the device still maintained an aura of alien wrongness. "I would be able to use their mainframe to turn Steven back into a human."

President Stone frowned. "This has happened before?"

"They turned me into a Pikachu for a while," Alena said nonchalantly, as if discussing the weather. "Right as I was about to challenge Steven for the championship," she added in an annoyed voice.

"_It's… kind of what they do,"_ Electrinz piped in. _"Team Thunder thinks humans are flawed beings, and the only way to fix the strife in the world is to turn all the humans into Pokémon."_

"_Which is _dumb," Sander growled.

Alena translated for her Pokémon and nervously fiddled with her vambrace, unsure of what to add. She considered bringing up the fact that she and her Pokémon had time traveled ten years in the past, or that she was related to Team Thunder's leader, but eventually decided that both were more likely to land her in prison than help her.

Thankfully, the older man seemed to ignore the holes in her explanation and didn't press the subject any farther. He looked down at the Pokémon quivering in his arms and shuddered, then protectively hugged his son to his chest.

"If you know a way to reverse this…" Instead of finishing that sentence, he loosened his grip on Steven and addressed him instead. "Would you be willing to travel with this woman?"

After a moment's consideration, Steven's eye sparkled. _"(Of course! Alena is a skilled and compassionate trainer and I would honored to fight at her side!)"_

Alena could feel her face turning pink. "You… want me to train you as one of my Pokémon?" she asked. "Are you sure?"

Steven made a happy beeping noise as his dad nearly dropped him. "Steven! You can't be serious! It's far too dangerous!" The tiny Beldum gave his father a hurt-puppy look, as though he had just been told he wasn't allowed to have his favorite candy.

"He should be able to use attacks like a normal Pokémon," Alena said. "And I would never let him get seriously injured!"

"_(This one wants to teach Master how to fight!)"_ Beldum chirped.

"_It would be better to teach him how to defend himself,"_ said Sander.

Even though he could only understand one of the speakers, the Devon president seemed to accept defeat. Sighing, he let go of Steven and allowed him to hover to Alena's side. "Please be careful," he pleaded. "Don't put yourself into unnecessary danger," he said with a pointed look in Steven's direction.

Alena resisted the urge to laugh and swung her bag onto the desk. After a few seconds of rummaging, she pulled out a black and gold Poké Ball and converted it to full size.

"_(Ah! A Luxury Ball? You don't need to use it on me!)"_

"Oh, cut it out! I'm not gonna stick you in a Poké Ball that makes you uncomfortable!" Alena tossed the Luxury Ball in her mentor's direction, only for him to dodge out of the way instinctively. "And I can't catch you if you don't stay still!"

Steven gave her what she assumed was a guilty look. _"(I'm sorry. I promise to stand still this time.)" _

Alena wasn't fooled. "You're shaking," she told him gently, leaning in so the others couldn't hear. "I just need to catch you once so no one else will be able to. It doesn't hurt, I promise!" Steven nodded, but closed his eye fearfully. Alena recovered the fallen Ball and tossed it underhand as carefully as possible.

It didn't _hurt_, but it certainly wasn't a comfortable feeling. Steven was at first reminded of the energized feeling he had felt when the Pokémorph's attack had hit him, but it quickly turned into a feeling like being constricted. It seemed as though the Ball was a series of metal bands spiraling around his 'body,' though he couldn't really tell if he even _had _a body at the moment. Just as he was getting used to the weightless feeling, the Ball's locking system was disengaged and Steven found himself dropped unceremoniously into the material world.

It took a few seconds for his senses to return to normal. When they did, he found Alena and Electrinz kneeling beside him with worried expressions on their faces. A little ways away, his father wrung his hands.

"_Are you ok?"_ the Pikachu asked, offering him a paw.

"_(I've fibe,)" _he said, somewhat drunkenly. He weakly tried to hover but only succeeded in flipping himself onto his back.

"_(We think Master Steven should avoid going inside a Poké Ball for now,)"_ said Metagross. _"(By our calculations, its physical age has been reduced to that of Beldum's: 17 months. Combined with its human brain, Master is too weak to tolerate the conversion into stored energy.)"_

"_(I'm not baby… I'm twennyfai… twenty-twive…ughh…)"_

"You are a bit small," Alena told him. "If Metagross is right and you really are a child, it's not surprising that going in and out of the Ball makes you feel sick." Steven tried to protest but all that came out was more babbling. Alena pulled a Lava Cookie out of her front pocket and held it in front of the Beldum's face. "This should make you feel better. You… can eat, right?"

It took Steven a minute or so to remember where his mouth was, but after eating the cookie he returned to his senses. "_(What happened to my clothes?)"_ was the first thing to come out of his mouth after he had regained the ability to speak.

"Team Thunder has your jacket," Alena reminded him. "They have your Trainer's Card too, along with whatever else was in your wallet."

"They took your wallet?!"

Steven made a pointed effort to look anywhere but at his father.

"Please tell me you weren't carrying any paper money."

The small Beldum shook his head for the sake of his father's sanity. (In actuality, he had been carrying at least 30,000 yen.)

President Stone let out a relieved sigh. "In that case, I'll just put a freeze on your accounts. As for your clothes, we brought the rest up here – though I'm not sure if you'll need them." He pointed to a pile of black fabric on one of the room's end tables.

"We'll need them when he changes back, unless he wants to wear my clothes," Alena said, gesturing to her skirt. "_I wouldn't mind, except he'd probably look better in them_," she added under her breath.

Looking at his clothes filled Steven with an indescribable feeling. It wasn't _bad_ per se, but it hammered in the fact that he was no longer human. Most of it wouldn't fit on his body, and the things that did would just look silly. His rings though… he was going to miss them more than anything. Whenever he became nervous he would fiddle with his rings or the cuffs of his jacket, but neither of those were an option now.

"_(Alena?)"_

"Yes?"

"_(Would you mind wearing my rings for me? I have a lot of fond memories attached to them and I feel that they'd be safer if someone were wearing them than if they were stored loosely in a container, and…)"_ He stopped himself before he could ramble any further. Without the need to take breaths every so often, he could continue talking for longer than ever before. _"(You don't have to though! If you left them here, that would be okay as well.)"_

"But then you wouldn't be able to see them," Alena reminded. "Wouldn't you feel better if you knew right where they were?"

"_(Well… yes.)"_

"Then of course I'll wear them for you!"

The two walked (or hovered, as the case may be) over to the pile and started to sort through everything. Alena slipped the rings on and thankfully enough they seemed to fit perfectly. The other thing that caught her eye was the red strip of fabric lying off to the side.

"Oh, it's your… scarf-thing!" she chirped. "You still have a neck, so it would work!"

"_(Scarf-thing?)"_ he asked blankly. Alena presented the fabric to him, beaming. _"(Oh, I see! If my Mega Pin is around it should be possible to fasten it in place.)"_ He started to ask if Alena knew how to tie a royal ascot but quickly learned the answer as Alena tied the fabric in a big puffy bow. This was probably for the best, Steven decided. (At least he would look cute.)

"You should probably wear this too," Alena said, tying something inside of the bow. At first Steven thought it was pumice, but on closer inspection he realized it was an Everstone. An unpleasant mental image of being fused with Beldum ran through his head and he quickly accepted the fact that he was _never_ going to evolve.

Alena swept the rest of the clothes into her backpack and swung it over her shoulder. "I think we're ready to go. Is there anything else you can think of before we go?"

"_Don't forget this!"_ Electrinz held up the Luxury Ball.

"_Can I take this?"_ Sander asked, pointing to a jade statuette shaped like a Flygon.

Alena held out a hand to catch the Ball and gave Sander a tired look. "You can't take things that don't belong to you." Sander looked longingly at the tiny version of herself as though she had just lost her best friend.

"_(This one wants to travel with Alena not-child too, please,)"_ said Beldum.

"_(We would also like to travel with Master's friend,)"_ said Metagross.

"Okay…" Alena looked through the Poké Balls attached to her belt. "I already have four Pokémon, so legally I can only take Steven and one other. But I could take another with me if I didn't use it to battle. Metagross, that would be you. Is that okay?"

"_(We understand,)"_ said Metagross. _"(We will protect the young ones if the need arises but will not fight otherwise.)"_

Alena patted the large Pokémon's metal head. Metagross snuggled up into her side, making a noise that sounded an awful lot like purring. "Metagross, return!" The Steel-type did as asked without hesitation. It was an incredibly well-behaved Pokémon, Alena thought with a hint of jealousy.

"Stay safe, all of you," President Stone called after them. "And Steven, please try not to do anything too rash."

The Champion-turned-Beldum groaned as the group stepped onto the elevator.


End file.
